Letter to the editor: How do you define the common good?

Related Media

I read David Sirota's opinion article about coaches pay and the common good in the Dec. 21 edition. I find I had difficulty disagreeing with the overall thrust of the piece, but this brought forth questions. Should a government official or newspaper writer set wages, or should society by buying tickets and watching television set wages? Or should the school officials, who are ultimately responsible for the school's financial integrity and hopefully have more than a vague concept of how much the football program affects the financial future of the university?

Sirota seems to infer that excess coaches wages should be applied to the common good, but he does not define what he considers the common good to be. Is it absolute equality, or is it the vision of equality and fairness which says that some portion of my overtime wages should be taken away and given to those who chose not to work overtime? Or is it that everyone's standard of living be increased, no matter what their station in life?

I think the truth is that these questions are difficult. But it also seems to be a fact that in every country with a government controlled price and wage structure, the capitalist black market provides the real rewards and advancement in that society.